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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 2000)
Proposal snares many sides into the pest control debate Farmers and animal rights activists disagree on the targeted trapping methods of Ballot Measure 97 By Andrew Adams Oregon Daily Emerald Junction City sheep rancher Cleve Dumdi , who runs several thousand head over 30 fields, once lost five sheep to one coyote in only two weeks. At $90 per sheep, and with the current competitive mar ket, Dumdi said state Ballot Mea sure 97, which would ban most an imal traps, would hurt the business of his family-owned ranch. Mari Margil, conservation coor dinator for the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club, disagrees. She sees the traps in question as a vicious, an tiquated method of animal con trol that creates many more dangers for people, pets and ecosystems than it does bene fits for ranchers. Dumdi and Margil represent the two sides in the debate over the anti-trapping measure, which has farmers claiming their livelihoods are threatened and animal rights ac tivists arguing the traps are just downright cruel. The group Protect Pets & Wildlife drafted Measure 97, which would prohibit the use of steel-jaw leghold traps and other traps commonly used to capture mammals. It would also make the sale, purchase and exchange of raw fur obtained through the use of such traps ille gal, as well as the use of poisons sodium fluoroacetate and sodium cyanide. Measure 97 would, however, al low for special use permits from the Department of Fish and Wildlife for padded jaw traps and non-strangling foot snares for deal ing with pests, if a landowner could successfully prove that they had tried alternative methods of pest control. Supporters of the measure, how ever, have a hard time acknowledg ing that there is any need for traps. Kelly Peterson, campaign manag er for the measure, said that many animals suffer for days after being caught in traps, before dying from starvation or escaping after chew ing off their own limbs. Peterson said her group gathered 104,000 signatures, 15,000 of which were taken in Lane County, Measure 97 would prohibit the use of animal traps, including steel jawed leghold traps, and would outlaw the sale and harvest of fur using such traps. It would also ban the use of the poisons sodium fluo roacetate and sodium cyanide. Proponents say the measure will put an end to the use of unneces sarily cruel traps that indiscrimi nately snare animals. Opponents say the measure would take a vital element of the agricul tural business out of the hands of farmers and ranchers. to place the measure on the state ballot. She said they received signa tures from Harney, Klamath and Wallowa counties, where the chief industry is agriculture. This, Peter son said, proves that some farmers do support the measure. “It’s not just a West-versus-East thing,” she said. “These traps affect { ( Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for traps, but we're trying to make it a last resort rather than a first response: Kelly Peterson campaign manager for measure 97 family pets, they’re so indiscrimi nate.” Peterson said she grew up in the country, and most of her family still hunts. She said she understands how some of the farmers against Measure 97 feel, but she can’t over look what she sees as the wanton cruelty of the traps. “There’s real difference in hunt ing and taking an animal quickly, than in trapping it and letting it suf fer,” she said. She said farmers and ranchers should look to alternative methods, such as electric fencing and territo rial animals, including dogs and llamas, to keep predators at bay. “Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for traps, but we’re trying to make it a last resort rather than a first response,” she said. Rancher Dumdi said he uses electric fences as much as he can, but with a herd as large as his spread out over several different fields, he needs every method of coyote control there is. Dumdi said he doesn’t use traps just because he has a personal vendetta against the predators, but because his business requires it. “We’re not just out there to mas sacre coyotes, but when we have a coyote hit the herd, I get the trapper and we try and get it," he said. To place traps, Dumdi said he has to notify all neighboring land owners and put up signs. He said he also has to obtain a permit from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. To Dumdi, this is already a lengthy process, and if he had to prove to the department that he has tried alternatives to trapping, it would only give pests and preda tors more time to damage his herd. Margil, the conservation coordi nator for the Sierra Club, said her group supports Measure 97 be cause of the adverse effect trapping has on Oregon’s environment. She said endangered and threatened an imals often are trapped and die, and poisons can have devastating effects on food chains. “Smaller rodents can eat the poi son and get into the food chain and then kill endangered species,” she said. She has little sympathy for ranchers and farmers who she said are too reliant on traps and should not even be targeting predators in the first place. When asked about the opposition’s arguments about Measure 97 being too restrictive, she was quick to respond. “I don’t buy into that whatsoev er,” she said. In addition to the Sierra Club, Measure 97 is supported by several of the Oregon chapters of the Audubon Society, 11 veterinarians and the senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. Groups that are opposed to the measure include: The Oregon Cat tlemen’s Association, Association of Oregon Counties, Oregon State Grange, Oregon Golf Course Own ers Association and several other organizations. Andy Anderson, executive vice president of Oregon Farm Bureau, a farmer’s advocacy group that is opposed to Measure 97, said the main reason his group opposes the measure is that it would hinder state farmers’ ability to protect crops from damaging pests that kill livestock, eat crops or tunnel be neath crop fields and into irrigation ditches. He also found fault with the measure’s wording. 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